So there are two ways you can live your life. You can devote your life to staying in your comfort zone, or you can work on your freedom.
Michael Singer from the untethered soul
Seeking the Comfortable
Are you running towards what is comfortable and away from what is not? Most of us do this, don't we? It is probably the human thing to do...a result of our basic survival instincts, but is it the best thing we could be doing for our spiritual evolution? What are we really doing when we retreat back into the comfort zones of our inner development?
I found myself over the last few days retreating back into the yoga comfort zone I had already built. Feeling a little physically unsettled, it seemed easier for me to retreat back to learning I already mastered instead of venturing out into the 'scary' unknown. The already learned is comfortable isn't it? The other stuff isn't so comfortable. So I was reading through old yoga questions I had answered in my course, breezing through texts I have read many time and even reviewing sequences that I have down pat. What's wrong with that? Nothing is wrong with that as long as I am just reviewing as a refresher so I can move onward to new challenges....and not hiding in there.
Hiding in the Comfort Zone of What has already Been Mastered
To be honest, I think I was hiding in the comfortable so I wouldn't have to face the uncomfortable. Hours of my day were spent reviewing what I already mastered and patting myself on the back for it instead of stepping with trembling legs into the areas I have yet to master.
Singer, in the untethered soul, compares this retreat into the comfortable as going back to grade five math after it was already successfully completed only because it will be easier. It will be easier and more comfortable and we will be seen as the smartest kids there because we already learned that stuff. But we can't stay in grade five math for the rest of our lives can we? In order to develop our math skills, we need to go to grade six where new lessons, new challenges will be provided.
We can't stay where we already have gained mastery in life either. We must move on if we want to grow. New learning, new challenges, new experiences, however, can feel unsettling to a mind that just wants peace. And the mind wanting to restore whatever it can in terms of mental balance and homeostasis will often lead us back to the comfortable rather than forward into the unknown. The mind has a tendency to retreat and retract when it becomes uncomfortable like when a need for new learning is required. There is a need for new learning in not only my yoga practice but my life. There is so much more inner development to master.
Always a Need to Learn More, grow More and Evolve More
In terms of my practice, however, I need to take yoga a step beyond what I already know. I am half afraid to because I do not know how much more my body will let me do. still I can't stay stuck here if I want to continue to grow as a yoga student and teacher. I need, in simpler terms, to develop new sequences and class material. In deeper terms, I need to master other areas of my body, life and mind. I need to stop running from new challenges and experiences and start running toward them.
Hmmm! My mind doesn't like that. It is already putting up defenses and saying "No, come back here where it is safe and just lay back into what you already know. You do not have to go out there when we can keep you safe in here."
I am reminded of this quote: A ship in a harbour is safe, but that is not what ships were built for. John A. Shedd
We are meant to grow, learn, evolve not hide in old learning.
All is well in my world.
Michael singer (2007 ) the untethered soul. New Harbinger Publications
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